Hello FreeCulture-ists, Andy Oram of O'Reilly Media will be in New York City on Thursday, August 30th. We've been planning an informal meetup with him over dinner, and we thought we'd put out a call and see if any of you Free Culture folks would like to join in an informal chat with him about his various interests.
I'd probably meet up with him in my neck of the woods (uptown) if it's only a few folks; but depending on who wants to hook up, we could move it to somewhere in midtown or downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn. I think it'll start at 8pm. If you all want to join us, send word to me or Jay Sulzberger (cc'd on this message) by some time next week. Andy is active with Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and writes often on technology, information and communications policy issues. I've picked out some of his articles so you can get a sense of his areas of concern, and he's also suggested some questions which I've pasted as a bit of a blurb at the bottom of this message, along with his bio. He's proposed considering issues of "open content and collaboration, funding models for content, and the economics of digital networks." You can see a list of his articles at http://praxagora.com/andyo/professional/article.html . Right now he doing some research on new media tools as well as online technical documention, described at http://praxagora.com/community_documentation/ . He's proposed considering issues of "open content and collaboration, funding models for content, and the economics of digital networks." You folks would probably get a kick out of his fiction, too -- see his work "Fair Players" below. Fiction Fair Players: A Fanciful Tale > http://praxagora.com/andyo/fiction/fair_players/index.html Snippet: Late into the night Carol sat with her players, reading from time to time the small pamphlets that came with them, turning each player over, tapping them, listening to the back of each one, getting intimate with them. They did not respond the way most physical objects did. But she could tell they had their own logic. And as she put them side by side, she realized that certain things didnt act right. Sometimes she would punch in a command that was meant to move a number or an image from one device to another, and the recipient refused to take the information. This was intriguing, and struck her as wrong. DRM/Censorware/Human Rights and Free Software (On DRM) Never Again to Validate One's Experience > http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2002/01/never_again_to_validate_ones_e.html Why I Do Not Install Filters on my Children's Computer > http://praxagora.com/andyo/ar/filter_argument.html Why Human Rights Requires Free Software > http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/10/11/platform.html A Free Software Agenda for Peer-to-Peer > http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2002/02/28/andyobru.html "Network Neutrality" and "Quality of Service" Network Neutrality and an Internet with Vision > http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/53907/ Network neutrality and the false idol of innovation > http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2006/05/network_neutrality_and_the_fal.html A Nice Way to Get Network Quality of Service? > http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/06/11/platform.html An Open System Promotes Diversity of Content > http://praxagora.com/andyo/ar/for_diversity.html Open Standards/ODF Open Standards Alliance: Make Your Voice Heard > http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2004/09/open_standards_alliance_make_y.html The Massachusetts Open Document Adoption: No Conflict of Interest > http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2005/12/massachusetts_opendocument_ado.html How a standard can kill a standard (OOXML versus ODF) > http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2007/07/how_a_standard_can_kill_a_stan.html Decentralized Net Applications: Gnutella and FreeNet Represent True Technological Innovation > http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2000/05/12/magazine/gnutella.html The Value of Gnutella and Freenet > http://praxagora.com/andyo/wr/gnutella_freenet_policy.html WIPO Xcasting Treaty The Problem with Webcasting > http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/etel/2006/01/13/the-problem-with-webcasting.html New Media Characteristics of New Media in the Internet Age > http://commons.oreilly.com/wiki/index.php/Chapters_for_Characteristics_of_new_media Splitting Books Open: Trends in Traditional and Online Technical Documentation > http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/opensource/news/2004/09/23/online_trends.html Online Tech Support/Documentation: How to Help Mailing Lists Help Readers Results of Recent Data Analysis > http://praxagora.com/andyo/professional/mailing_list_follow_up/ Do-It-Yourself Documentation? Research Into the Effectiveness of Mailing Lists > http://praxagora.com/andyo/professional/mailing_list/mailing_list.html Why Do People Write Free Documentation? Results of a Survey > http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/06/14/why-do-people-write-free-documentation-results-of-a-survey.html "Interview With the Editor:" > http://praxagora.com/andyo/ An informal gathering with Andy Oram, Editor at O'Reilly Media ---------------------------------------- ...to discuss open content and collaboration, funding models for content, and the economics of digital networks (and numerous other things) Date: Thursday, August 30th, 2007 Time: 8:00 pm Place: TBD Discussion will be kicked off by topics such as: * Why do people contribute free content, and what can society or businesses do to increase participation and quality? * In an age where many people can't afford books or don't want to read them, how do people learn technical skills? * What characteristics distinguish the arts in digital media from twentieth-century and pre-twentieth-century media? * How can writers earn a living from content in an age of free redistribution? * How will new stages of high-bandwidth networking be funded (can advertising carry the cost?) Biography: Andy Oram is an editor at O'Reilly Media, a highly respected book publisher and technology information provider. An employee of the company since 1992, Andy specializes in free software projects and software engineering. His work for O'Reilly includes the first books ever released by a U.S. publisher on Linux, the 2001 title Peer-to-Peer, and the recent best-seller Beautiful Code. Andy is also a member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and writes frequently on policy issues and trends related to the Internet and to technical innovation and its effects on society. Copyrights, trademarks, and patents, business aspects of open source, and telecom issues are among the topics covered in his articles at: http://praxagora.com/andyo/professional/article.html He is currently doing research on free, online, technical documention, along with experiments in new tools, as described at: http://praxagora.com/community_documentation/ An article he wrote about art on the Internet, titled "Characteristics of new media in the Internet age," is maintained as a wiki at: http://commons.oreilly.com/wiki/index.php/Chapters_for_Characteristics_of_new_media _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
